Chapel Stud Close at Heart

Nestled near the Malvern Hills in the west of England is Chapel Stud, a 70-acre stud farm owned and managed by Roisin Close. As well as offering services from boarding, sales preparation to breaking and pre-training the stud now boasts a dual-purpose stallion roster with new recruits Walzertakt (Ger) and Bangkok (Ire) joining the stud's three existing and established stallions, Planteur (Ire), Indian Haven (GB) and Hellvelyn (GB). Close formerly owned Bucklands Farm and Stud but when the business outgrew the facilities at that farm a move was needed.

“Chapel Stud is actually an extension, or a following on from Bucklands Farm,” said Close. “We outgrew the farm, so we needed to find a new premises. We found a farm about half an hour north of where Bucklands was and over the last three years we've slowly been putting in all the relevant needs for horses. I have all sorts of plans going forward but at the moment it is serving every purpose that we need it to serve.”

Prior to owning her own stud, Close gained experience across the world with time spent at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky and a 13-year stint at Tweenhills Stud. Along the way she has gained valuable friendships and appreciates the amount of support she has had throughout her career and with setting up her enterprise.

“I'm so lucky that along the way everyone has supported me and backed me and allowed me to get where I am,” said Close. “That includes people I've worked for, people I've worked alongside, my family, my friends, they have all allowed me to get where I am.”

Having previously owned stallions outright Close knows the financial and physical demands that are required to make a horse successful. Three of the stallions, Planteur, Bangkok and Walzertakt, calling Chapel Stud home are owned by Simon Davies and for Close having a team member like Davies is not lost on her.

“With the sprint stallions that I stood beforehand everything was always on a budget,” Close said. “Simon has really gone in in a big way, from advertising to promotions and or sponsorship. It's been really lovely to deal with someone that has that same kind of passion and really wants to make a success of things.”

Spearheading the stallion roster is Planteur, a horse who started his stud career with Al Shaqab and was purchased by Davies in 2020. Trueshan (Fr) is the stallion's classiest offspring and has become a staying star for trainer Alan King.  Aside from that multiple group winner, Planteur is also the sire of G2 winner Road To Arc (Fr) and is operating just shy of 58% winners to runners.

Davies has added National Hunt stallion Walzertakt to his bloodstock portfolio at Chapel Stud having purchased him from Haras de la Croix Sonnet. The German-bred Group 2 winner is bred along similar lines to Camelot (Ire), being by Montjeu (Ire) out of the Kingmambo (USA) mare Walzerkoenigin (USA) and has yet to be tested with his eldest progeny only being four.

Coming in as a dual-purpose stallion is Bangkok who is standing his first season at stud this year having previously been quite a talking-horse for King Power Racing.

“He's a very attractive, quality son of Australia (GB) out of a blue hen mare, Tanaghum (GB),” said Close of the bay horse. “He's a half-brother to Group 1 winner Matterhorn (Ire) and his half-sister Mujarah (Ire) is the dam of Ribchester (Ire). Actually, all of Simon's stallions have looks and temperament as well as an excellent pedigree.”

The six-time winner has run over seven furlongs to a mile and a quarter and raced from the age of two to five with international trips under his belt too.

“Andrew Balding, who trained him, said 'he was a tough, sound and consistent horse with a stallion's pedigree,' ” Close remarked. “He's absolutely the type of horse that people should be embracing to breed racehorses. He should be able to breed you a top-quality horse across the board.”

With a bonus scheme available to those breeders who breed his first 2-year-old winner and his first black-type 2-year-old winner it is no wonder that Close is bullish about the type of horse she envisions Bangkok could sire stating that he is a horse who offers “toughness and soundness.”

While new stallions bring excitement to any stud farm, Close has a sparkle in her eye talking about her boys new and old with Hellvelyn getting a special mention. With something on offer for everyone, Chapel Stud could continue to grow in stature much like the hills that surround its pastures.

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Journeyman Takes a ‘Chance’ with New Stallions

At Journeyman Stud in Ocala, Florida, one feels a sense of family and mutual respect among all of the inhabitants–horses, dogs and people. The atmosphere is relaxed and happy. Brent Fernung of Journeyman Stud and his wife, Crystal, have been cornerstones of the Thoroughbred industry in Florida for more than 40 years. Under Fernung's management Congrats, the leading first-crop sire of 2010, and Wildcat Heir, North America's leading second-crop sire in 2010, both began their careers.

In addition to its two new stallions Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo–Forest Music, by Unbridled's Song) and Chance It (Currency Swap–Vagabon Diva, by Pleasantly Perfect), Journeyman Stud currently stands Khozan, Florida's leading sire in 2020 and 2021, as well as St Patrick's Day and Mr. Money. Fernung said he wasn't necessarily looking for a new stallion when he went to the Keeneland November Sale. But when, at the suggestion of friends Des Ryan and Ben Glass, he visited Uncle Chuck, he said he knew this was a stallion prospect that would appeal to Florida breeders.

Campaigned by Michael Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, Uncle Chuck was $250,000 Keeneland September yearling and is a half-brother to successful Kentucky-based sire Maclean's Music. In his second start, Uncle Chuck won the GIII Los Alamitos Derby.

“In his first start, [Uncle Chuck] dominated a field of maidens winning by seven lengths, and it could have been 70 lengths. And he was obviously still green, [he] got about mid-stretch and switched to his left lead and kind of started gawking around and was still drawing off from them under what wasn't particularly perfect circumstances,” said Fernung. “Then of course, he followed that up with a four-length victory over Thousand Words in a Grade III running a mile and an eighth in his second start. So, I don't think there was any distance limitations to this horse at all.”

Brilliance on the track is just one of the pillars Fernung looks for in a successful stallion and he said Uncle Chuck checks all of his boxes.

“Forest Music was a very good race mare. First of all, she might have been the fastest daughter of Unbridled's Song to make it to the races,” said Fernung. “And as a broodmare, besides producing a top-quality stallion in Maclean's Music, she's produced two other graded stake winners besides Uncle Chuck. It's a great family. You can't beat it.

“When the opportunity arose to get Uncle Chuck, I looked his pedigree up. And he had this tremendous pedigree,” said Fernung. “But more importantly, he was a top racehorse that was brilliant in the few starts he was able to make. That's the trifecta, in my opinion.

“I don't want a stallion because of who his brother is. I don't want a stallion because of who his sire is. And I really don't want a stallion just based on his talent or ability. I want that combination, you know, by a world-class champion sire out of a spectacular broodmare and a solid racehorse.”

Fernung said Uncle Chuck's physical is another attribute adding to his appeal.

“Uncle Chuck physically is such an impressive horse,” said Fernung. “He's got plenty of bone. He's a big horse, probably 16.3. And he's just as correct as he can be. He's really an entire package physically. His ability, his pedigree, his sire, put together with that physicality is really an unusual combination of traits to get down here.”

Uncle Chuck has been well received already with more than 60 mares in his book and Fernung said the phone is still ringing. In addition to the local interest, Uncle Chuck's ownership group plans to bring a large group of mares to the freshman sire.

“It's an interesting story. I went and looked at Uncle Chuck on my own and the next day I got a call from Frank Taylor from Taylor Made and Frank says, 'I just been out here to look at this horse. Would you be interested in standing him down in Ocala?'” said Fernung. “Getting Taylor Made involved has always been fortunate for us. Of course, they were the ones who originally sent Wildcat Heir down to Journeyman.”

Chance It just before his Mucho Macho Man S. win| Ryan Thompson

Chance It, Journeyman's other new stallion, has been a fan favorite in Florida for his entire racing career. With lifetime earnings of $583,330, he was on the board in nine of 11 starts with six triple-digit Beyers. A multiple FTBOA Florida Sire S. winner at two and an additional black-type winner at three, he finished third in Saratoga's GI Forego S. at four.

“Chance It has great local appeal here in Ocala. He was Florida's horse,” said Fernung. “He was destined to go on and do some really great things, in my opinion. But then he injured himself. He came back, placed in a Grade I sprint stakes, had the potential to win one of them, but injury ended his career at that point.”

As to Fernung's formula for success, Chance It has more than just racing ability.

“Chance It's a big, strong correct horse,” said Fernung. “He's 16.2. You can see the reason he was so fast when you look through his hindquarters and his shoulder. He moves like a cat, just a very nice physical.”

Fernung said Chance It's ownership group, led by Mary Lightner with advice from her father, Mike, is as enthusiastic to bring mares and support the stallion in his new career as they did with his racing career.

“We've been friends with them for 30 years,” said Fernung. “The opportunity to own a stallion with them was one that we really embraced.”

Fernung said he believes Chance It has a great chance to succeed in Florida.

“Our entire industry down here has been developed through 2-year-old racing,” said Fernung. “I think Chance It has that kind of physicality to him that's going to get you early horses that can really run. I'm excited to have the opportunity to stand him.”

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Value Sires for 2022, Part 1: New Stallions

Welcome to our annual winter survey of Kentucky stallion options–with the difference, this time round, that the emphasis will be far more strictly and succinctly on value.

Over the past couple of years, acknowledging of the brevity of commercial momentum for so many sires once losing their freshman luster, we've got into the habit of granting some attention (more or less courteous!) to just about every stallion in the Bluegrass. But such an exhaustive approach has doubtless proved still more exhausting for the reader than for the compiler.

So, we've resolved to cut to the chase: the most horse for your buck. We'll still be taking each intake in turn, starting here with the new recruits; and we'll briefly assess their overall state of play before making and attempting to justify our selections for the Value Podium. We'll also acknowledge one or two who got close–while omitting more than enough names for no damning inferences to be made…

Of course, it's a wholly subjective exercise. Different stallions fit different mares. Okay, so maybe I would be more inclined than some to try and breed a horse that can actually run, when for many people selling must be the pragmatic priority. But I do persist in the naïve belief that there should be nothing more commercial, in the medium term, than putting a few winners under your mare.

No apologies either, then, for reiterating the usual caveat that almost every new stallion will turn out to be standing at a career-high fee. For every rookie that eventually hits a home run, a dozen will end up packing their bags either for a regional program or overseas.

This observation tends to annoy some people, who complain that proven sires are beyond reach and that you have to try and get ahead of the curve with an untested commodity. But I just don't buy that, when so many affordable stallions are shunned despite showing a consistent ability to get runners. As it is, stallion farms have an ever-narrowing window to retrieve their investment before everyone moves onto the next turn of the carousel. It's not the way they'd choose; and nor are the breeders really to blame. We in the media are certainly complicit, but the real fault rests with those directing investment at ringside.

Regardless, the object of this exercise isn't to identify the prospect “most likely”. If you were doing that, you would plainly start with the blatantly credentialed Essential Quality (Tapit), the sensationally talented Charlatan (Speightstown) or the knockout physical Maxfield (Street Sense). But these are priced accordingly (at $75,000, $50,000 and $40,000) and we're trying to find fees that improve your odds.

True, value can be found at all levels of the market: sometimes the most expensive stallion may actually be more competitively priced than cheaper peers. And this does feel like a fairly ordinary intake, in terms of depth. But it's going to be hard for any rookie to advance his fee, when this is the one opportunity for stud accountants to bank on some demand. Still, we can but try.

Bubbling under: It's rare for an animal as accomplished as Knicks Go to go to stud at so restrained a fee. Whether access to the Horse of the Year elect for just $30,000 at TaylorMade will produce commercial dividends simply depends on how far the market acknowledges that.

 

 

Paynter puts him in a tricky place. On the one hand, Knicks Go can't pretend to be a son of Tapit, like Essential Quality. On the other, if he confirms his sire to be terrific value, then you can access the proven fount of his excellence even more inexpensively.

His first three dams, moreover, are by left-field names in Outflanker, Allens Prospect and Medaille d'Or. But these are respectively sons of Danzig (out of a half-sister to Weekend Surprise), Mr. Prospector and Secretariat. Given that Paynter's own mother represents a dynasty that unexpectedly evolved into royalty, it's not as though we are short of viable genetic explanations for Knicks Go.

Remember that his dam deployed stakes speed through four seasons–so anticipating her son's remarkable 2-1-1 Breeders' Cup record at ages two, four and five. The bottom line is that he's standing at a much lower fee than a couple that couldn't lay a glove on him, and nobody should be at all surprised to see him prove his elite caliber all over again.

A quick word for Modernist, a sufficiently respectable racehorse to deserve an opportunity to recycle some illustrious genes from Darby Dan at $10,000. Uncle Mo appears to be a precocious sire of sires, and the same adjective applies to the late Bernardini as a broodmare sire: Modernist is out of a Bernardini half-sister to Breeders' Cup winners Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet (both by Storm Cat). And I like an influence as robust as Kris S. behind both the second dam and Uncle Mo's mother, who is by his son Arch.

 

BRONZE:  TACITUS (Tapit–Close Hatches by First Defence)

TaylorMade Stallions $10,000

No doubt Tacitus lost quite a lot of friends in winning just one of his last 12 races. But that record definitely didn't do justice to the ability he had shown in winning his maiden, the GII Tampa Bay Derby (stakes record) and GII Wood Memorial on his way to making the Derby frame via a wide trip. Arguably he was again undone by race position when contriving to lose the GI Belmont S. to Sir Winston (Awesome Again), but he soon ran out of excuses in thereafter mustering only a romp against overmatched rivals in the GII Suburban S.

He did subsequently manage a creditable fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, but the hope that he might piece everything back together this time round backfired horribly when he surfaced only in October, to no great effect, after trying his luck in the desert in February.

But while there were clearly issues ultimately thwarting his fulfilment, Tacitus had shown authentic glimpses of class–sufficient, certainly, to be worth a second chance in his new career. Because none of the stallions in this intake can surpass his genetic package, and he has been priced to tempt even the wariest.

Obviously, he is by a champion stallion out of a champion mare. But the real excitement comes from the sheer depth of a family tree tracing, via a branch cultivated through three generations by Juddmonte, to one of the great modern matriarchs in fifth dam Best In Show (Traffic Judge). The dynasty has repeatedly flashed its continued vitality this year, while this particular branch has another young stallion starting out in Japan in Siskin. That Irish Classic winner shares his sire First Defence with the dam of Tacitus, five-time Grade I winner Close Hatches, along with her unhappily-named sister Lockdown (made the frame in the GI Kentucky Oaks). First Defence, incidentally, is by a son of Unbridled out of Seattle Slew mare–none other than Honest Lady, from Toussaud's brood of Grade I winners–while Tapit is by a grandson of Seattle Slew out of an Unbridled mare.

All in all, then, Tacitus has the kind of seamless pedigree that would have warranted a roll of the dice in, say, a top regional program even if he had never made it onto the track. As it is, he showed enough ability to bank $3.7 million. Conceivably, then, you're looking at a sire who could emulate Tapit himself by redeeming at stud a degree of underachievement on the racetrack.

 

 

SILVER: SILVER STATE (Hard Spun–Supreme by Empire Maker)

Claiborne $20,000

Who else could get the silver medal than a horse bearing this name? There's an instant, old-school resonance to a GI Met Mile winner standing at a farm like this, and Claiborne tend to give clients a very fair chance in pricing their new stallions.

It would clearly be edifying for Hard Spun, as our youngest connection to Danzig, to come up with one or two worthy heirs and Silver State developed a pretty eligible profile with maturity. Having only been pushing the margins of the Derby trail as a Fair Grounds sophomore, Hard Spun became an exemplary project for his barn, regrouping after a lay-off to run up a six-timer as he progressed through the grades. He tapered off thereafter, but he had established himself as a tough and classy miler who had put some Danzig pep into a page with plenty of stretch.

Arguably, in fact, he might have flourished from better opportunity to explore his stamina. Certainly, the seeding of his family entitles Silver State to sire Classic types: his graded stakes-placed dam is by Empire Maker; his granddam is a sister to Monarchos, their mother being by Dixieland Band; and the fourth dam is by the doughty influence Roberto out of a half-sister to the mother of Dynaformer.

Roberto recurs in Silver State's pedigree as sire of Hard Spun's granddam, and so flags up the key to why this horse can be a still better stallion than he was a racehorse. For he combines Darby Dan royalty top and bottom. That Roberto granddam was a half-sister to Little Current, which means she was in turn out of a half-sister to two other farm legends in Chateaugay and Primonetta.

I can only imagine that Darby Dan would have loved to welcome Silver State “home” to the farm that cultivated the families of both sire and dam. As it is, it feels apt enough that he retires to the farm that stood his grandsire Danzig. You can measure Silver State's physique by his $450,000 yearling tag, while he won a race that has historically announced many a stallion by making them run that sweeping Belmont mile round a single turn, on a single, speed-carrying gasp.

Pedigree, check. Physique, check. Performance, check. If that's not enough for you, good luck.

 

GOLD: KNOWN AGENDA (Curlin–Byrama (GB) by Byron {GB}) 

Spendthrift $10,000

There's been a lot of water under the bridge since, but it's definitely worth rowing back to the spring and remembering how unequivocally blinkers had confirmed Known Agenda's place among the sophomore elite. He would hardly be the first good horse to derail in the Triple Crown series–and the Derby definitely didn't set up for his strengths anyway–and fortunately he had shown the commercial sense to win what is nowadays treated as an almost automatic signpost to stallion stardom, the GI Florida Derby.

A trend like that should not be embraced too literally, of course, but in this case his success corroborated a breakout 11-length romp in blinkers on his previous start. His raw talent had never been in doubt, after the Aqueduct maiden in which he dragged Greatest Honour–to me, still the most flamboyant talent in the crop–21 lengths clear of a colt that subsequently proved his own graded-stakes caliber.

Known Agenda (Curlin) has a most attractive shape to his pedigree, combining a two-turn big hitter on the main track with first and second dams of mutually contrasting profile: respectively a Grade I winner by a sprinting grandson of Danzig, and a daughter of a Classic distaff influence in Europe, Darshaan (GB), himself a son of the copper-bottomed stamina tap Shirley Heights (GB). If the damsire is unfamiliar, Europeans will recall the speed he inherited from both parents; and his bloodlines are regal. There are seams of gold along Known Agenda's bottom line, too: it gave us the redoubtable European influence Pharly (Fr), for instance; the third dam beat an aggregate 59 rivals in winning three consecutive sprints as a juvenile; and among the strands of the indispensable Princequillo are both Round Table and his full sister.

Known Agenda did enough on the track to suggest that he was blending the best of both worlds: speed and stamina, dirt and turf. That, to me, is the foremost commodity we should be seeking in new blood.

He has reliably been priced to have every chance at Spendthrift. That clearly means you are unlikely to be offering the only Known Agenda, at any given sale, but if our priority is value, this is the guy in this intake best equipped to multiply his yield. While you might not always agree with the principles that drive the market, we know how it functions and a breeder can only put bread on the table by anticipating demand. Call it… knowing the agenda! He graduates from an exemplary program and, while there are more accomplished rookies available, they will have to work a lot harder to move up their fees from where they are starting.

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Battleground, Epaulette to Stand in Turkey

Group 2 winner Battleground (War Front–Found {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), a winner of the G2 Vintage S., has been purchased from Coolmore and will stand the 2022 breeding season at the Jockey Club of Turkey Stud Farms in Turkey. A fee will be announced later.

Also a winner of the Listed Chesham S. at Royal Ascot, he crowned his juvenile season with a close second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. Bred by Coolmore entity Orpendale/Chelston/Wynatt, the son of G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Found ran third in the G1 St. James's Palace S., his best showing from three starts as a sophomore for the Coolmore partners and trainer Aidan O'Brien. From the same family as this year's standout G1 Cazoo Oaks, G1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks and G1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks heroine Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), his record stands at 7-2-1-1 and $289,722 in earnings.

Joining Battleground at the Jockey Club of Turkey Stud Farms next season is former Australian-based reverse-shuttle stallion Epaulette (Aus) (Commands {Aus}–Accessories {GB}, by Singspiel {Ire}). Purchased from Darley Australia, the bay won the G1 Golden Rose S. and G1 Doomben 10,000. At stud, he has left 15 black-type winners, among them Group 1 winners Red Lark (Ire), Soqrat (Aus).

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